Archive of films Fish & Cat / Mahi Va Gorbeh
What would happen if time ceased to progress linearly and we were thus given the chance to look simultaneously into the past and future? Director Shahram Mokri asks this question and provides an answer in his beguiling mix of horror flick and meditation on the essence of time, using a single shot to observe one day in the life of a motley group of people. The expressions "here” and "now” have no meaning, time planes merge together, while an inexplicable sense of foreboding becomes more tangible as the day wears on.…
Synopsis
Two cooks in a small restaurant at the ends of the Earth, where not even the most famished of diners would order anything. A sack of rotten meat and a sense of paranoia that someone will turn up who hasn’t passed through the "gate.” A group of camping students on the other side of the woods, preparing for their kite-flying competition – there’s a sense of unease around them as well. Nothing’s as it should be, things aren’t in their proper places, and some visitors might well be long dead. There’s something sinister in the air, something which suggests that the effect doesn’t necessarily always follow the cause. The past organically merges with the future, the expressions "here” and "now” make no sense, and the characters roam around, drifting from nowhere to nowhere, as if in their own nightmare. Fish & Cat is a beguiling brew of horror flick, black comedy and meditation on the essence of time. Within a single shot lasting over two hours, director Shahram Mokri unfurled a remarkably complex choreography, whose sophistication allows us to observe the protagonists’ fates from various angles and time frames.
About the director
Shahram Mokri (b. 1977, Marand, Iran) is a film director and editor. He studied film at Soureh College in Tehran. Since 2000 he has made six shorts, including Electric Shock and Fly (2000), Dragonfly Storm (2002), Limit of Circle (2005) and Ando – C (2007), gradually shaping a distinctive directorial style which has earned him international recognition. His feature debut Ashkan, The Charmed Ring and Other Stories (Ashkan, angoshtar-e motebarek va dastan-haye digar, 2009) was screened in its international premiere at the Busan IFF, and his second feature, Fish & Cat (Mahi va gorbeh, 2013), was premiered internationally at Venice. As editor, Mokri has worked on roughly ten TV films, two series and around twenty shorts and documentaries.
Contacts
Iranian Independents
P.O. Box 15875-4769, , Tehran
Iran
Tel: +98 912 319 8693
Fax: +98 912 3198693
E-mail: [email protected]
www: www.iranianindependents.com
About the film
Color, DCP
Section: | Horizons |
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Director: | Shahram Mokri |
Screenplay: | Shahram Mokri |
Dir. of Photography: | Mahmoud Kalari |
Music: | Christophe Rezai |
Producer: | Sepehr Seyfi |
Production: | Iran Novin Film |
Cast: | Babak Karimi, Saeed Ebrahimifar, Abed Abest, Ainaz Azarhoush, Mona Ahmadi |
Contact: | Iranian Independents |